The Road to War

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The road to war is paved with timid hearts and minds
with broken words and fear of naked photographs

The road to war is ribbons and confetti with soldiers
who have no words to trade for fallen comrades

The road to war is blood-stained tears of children
without fathers mothers without sons circles of blood
trust shattered and lost beneath waves of destruction

The road to war is pretending other people are victim
born whose suffering is not real whose hearts do not
bleed whose souls do not cry vengeance

The road to war is sorrow and turning back the wheel of
time remembering when war was peace and justice was
an unseen hand transforming wrong to right

The shrapnel of an improvised explosive rips through the
tender skin of an armored Humvee severed veins arteries
tendons bones cry of children caw of crow the last sound
on the road to war is a ringing of the bells, a soldier’s final
summons

The road to war is roses in a garden a ride on daddy’s knee
photos in a family album the strong the brave the free

The road to war is history
the road to peace a dream

Jazz.